George Washington Carver Did Not Invent Peanut Butter

Today I found out, contrary to popular belief, George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter. The earliest reference to peanut butter being made goes all the way back to the Ancient Incas and the Aztecs, though whether they were the first or not isn’t known (peanuts themselves are known to have been cultivated as far back as 7000-8000 years ago). Since then, peanut butter has been “invented” numerous times by various individuals throughout history.

Although Carver didn’t invent peanut butter, he did play a significant role in popularizing it and his 1880 “invention” of peanut butter preceded most of the other modern “inventors” of peanut butter. Carver was one of the greatest inventors in American history, discovering over 300 hundred uses for peanuts with100 or so of those not being related to one another in terms of the end product produced; he also discovered hundreds of uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes.

Among the various products he created from peanuts, pecans, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and a few other types of plants were:

Joseph L. Rosenfield in 1928 invented the churning process that gives peanut butter the smooth texture we have today. He originally licensed this process to Pond Company, who makes Peter Pan peanut butter. In 1932, he started his own peanut butter company which he named Skippy.

Carver did not patent the vast majority of his inventions; in fact, he only patented three. He believed his discoveries with food products were all gifts from God. “God gave them to me.” He would say about his ideas, “How can I sell them to someone else?”

In 1940, three years before his death, Carver donated his life savings of $60,000 to the establishment of the Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee, which is an organization dedicated to continuing research in agriculture.

The epitaph on the grave of Carver reads as follows: “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.”

Not only did he not patent most of his discoveries, Carver once turned down a job to work for Thomas Edison for an annual salary of $100,000 (in today’s currency that would be around 1 million dollars a year), because Edison would have not made the inventions Carver came up with, while he worked there, free to the public. Carver wanted his inventions available for anyone to use at no cost.

Carver also liked to make his discoveries easy for other people to reproduce, including farmers, many of whom were barely literate. He published many pamphlets giving instructions for farmers to make such things as adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, instant coffee, inks, meat tenderizers, metal polish, paper, plastics, pavement, synthetic rubber, wood stain, etc.

First roasting the peanuts at around 240 degrees Celsius (464 degrees Fahrenheit). At this stage the peanuts turn from white to light brown.

The peanuts are then cooled rapidly so that they don’t continue to cook and so that the natural oils remain in the peanut.

They are then blanched with the blancher machine removing the skins and splitting the kernels and removing the heart at the center. The skins are typically then sold for pig food and the hearts for bird food.

The split peanut kernels are then dropped into a grinder where they are slowly ground into a paste. This is done slowly to make sure the peanuts don’t heat up too much in the grinding process.

Additional ingredients are then added to the peanut paste, such as sugar, salt, and hydrogenated vegetable oil. The purpose of the vegetable oil is to make it so the natural peanut oils do not separate from the butter; though, in some brands of peanut butter, you will still see this happen at times, as with one of the creamier brands of peanut butter, Peter Pan.

Despite peanut butter not needing refrigerated, most major brands of peanut butter do not contain any preservatives.

Over 50% of all peanuts grown in the United States are used for making peanut butter and other peanut spreads.

Carver played a huge role in the recovery of the South’s economy, which had formerly been based primarily on the production of cotton and tobacco, which depleted soils and had the secondary side effect of having near the entire southern economy based on just two crops; one of which was being threatened by weevils in Carver’s time.

It was Carver who developed a system for rotating specific crops in the South which would allow for the fields to be used in a sustainable fashion and provided a more diverse income source for farmers. This rotation included alternating nitrate producing legumes, such as peanuts and peas, with cotton. He later discovered that pecans and sweet potatoes also enriched the depleted soils and so proceeded to recommend those in the rotation. *note: crop rotation methods have been around for thousands of years. Carver simply put forth a specific system which would allow the South to still grow cotton and tobacco in large quantities, while at the same time be able to grow other crops to sell that would replenish the soil with the nutrients the cotton and tobacco used up.

He then successfully campaigned to get the farmers to use this system. After that, he invented numerous ways for these crops to be used to make them valuable things to grow; such as with peanuts, which previously were not a valuable crop outside of being used for feed for livestock. With the South now producing significantly more peanuts than was needed at the time, it created a massive surplus and the prices plummeted. Not to be deterred, Carver then proceeded to discover over 300 uses of peanuts that made the crops valuable once again. He did the same thing for sweet potatoes and pecans; this all then created a huge market for these products that the southern farmers were now growing in-mass. By the time of Carver’s death, peanuts alone had gone from a rarely grown crop, to one of the six largest crops produced in America.

Carver also developed many cures and preventative measures for stopping various fungi from killing plants, such as cherry plants. In the process, he discovered two new types of fungus that now bear his name.

Carver’s significant aid to the country didn’t stop there. During WWI, when textile dyes that had previously been imported from Europe were in short supply, he managed to produce over 500 shades of dye from products such as soybeans and peanuts, which were readily available in America. This didn’t just help the textile companies, but also diverted cash that used to go to Europe from America, but now went to American farmers.

Also during WWI, his method for creating synthetic rubber from goldenrod, which is a weed, was a huge boon to the United States Army. Carver had developed this method with Henry Ford, whom he was close friends with.

When Carver’s health declined in 1937, Henry Ford had an elevator installed for Carver in his home as Carver could no longer use stairs.

The area in Diamond Grove, Missouri, where George Washington Carver grew up, is now preserved as a park. It was the first national monument in the United States dedicated to an American with black skin.

Carver’s fame skyrocketed after being selected by the United Peanut Association of America to speak to the U.S. House of Representatives on the issue of peanut tariffs. Initially, he was mocked, primarily by southern congressmen; but by the end of his speech, he was given a standing ovation. His eloquence and intelligence during this speech endeared him both to the congressman and the general public.

During his lifetime, Carver was often mocked by other scientists for his steadfast Christian beliefs and the fact that he believed God guided his research. This frequent criticism also aided in his rise to fame, as the general public viewed these criticisms as an attack on religion.

Carver compiled a list of eight cardinal virtues for all his students to try to emulate. These were:

Be clean both inside and out.

Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor.

Lose, if need be, without squealing.

Win without bragging.

Always be considerate of women, children, and older people.

Be too brave to lie.

Be too generous to cheat.

Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.

George Washington Carver was born in 1864, near the end of the Civil War, in Missouri, at the farm of Moses Carver, who owned George’s mother Mary and father Giles. Moses Carver had purchased Mary and Giles for $700 in 1855. His mother and he were kidnapped by Civil War raiders and sent to Arkansas. Moses Carver hired John Bentley to find George and reclaimed him by swapping a racehorse for him, but his mother was never found. George was raised by Moses and Susan Carver as if he were their own son. George struggled to get a proper education, owing to the color of his skin, but eventually found a schoolhouse and later, at the age of 30, a University that would take him. He was the first black man at Iowa State University.

Carver earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1897 from Iowa State University and a Master of Botany and Agriculture in 1897. He then became a member of the faculty at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanics and later at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, where he remained until his death in 1943. While there however, he was frequently known to tender his resignation for various reasons, generally stemming from wounded pride.

Early in life, Carver had a mysterious illness that made him somewhat frail. He was not expected to live into adulthood. All 10 of his sisters and his one brother died prematurely from similar ailments.

Actually; there is only 10 million Black Americans on welfare and there are 46 million Black Americans.

Secondly; you need to brush up on American history. Learn about the prosperous Black towns/cities that were burned down or the people forced out from 1850-1951. Black Wall Street Tulsa, was the most successful city in the U.S at the time.

It was Whites who were on welfare that destroyed over 15,000 homes, over 1,000 businesses, killed over 600 people, left 4,000 homeless and looted their property in 1921.

Things like that happened throughout American history. Manhattan would have been owned by Blacks if they were “FORCED” out and worth millions right now. So the past affects the presents, because those who have stolen are benefiting from it.

Lol, one of the greatest inventors in American history? Nothing he “invented” is still used today and he just found different ways to do already known things. If he were white he would have been forgotten a long long time ago

We could all learn from George Washington Carver. All of us. He may be the greatest man outside of Jesus to live on this earth. He was of incredible intellect, industrious, and had discipline that few of us understand today. He was a humble leader and worker. Humble leadership is a lost art in our society today. He was not driven by financial gain but by vision, calling and purpose, As a matter of fact, when offered six figure incomes by Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, he turned them down. We all need George Washington Carver’s character. If we did, the world would be a different place! Yes, in a time of ignorance, he did prove that color had no bearing on a man’s potential for contribution to society. We should be far beyond that now. Now we need to learn from the man, his heart of humility, his personal initiative, his willingness to work hard and sacrifice for the benefit of others, most importantly, his intimate walk with God.

I care cause even after all of that we will have no justice for the mike brown in a white society. As long as Whites can freely kill places like the black wall street, we will NEVER see justice. One question to the whites on this board…all of these uses GWC did who is making the money from it? Im pretty sure there is some white man reaping all the benefits from those black inventions today. Hussman was for sure one of them. How in the name of the true god are whites able to run a company based on a black man’s invention. Wait I already know..steal anything lately?

Peanut butter is good and I could give a crap who invented it. I put peanut butter with curry. Does that make me famous? I’m not in the internet getting credit for the famous Thai dipping sauce so everybody calm down and make yourselves a peanut butter jelly sandwich and be greatful you all living in the great USofA and were not starving like the rest of the world. Dumbasses! I can’t stop lmao! @odhinnson you’re too funny.

And he didn’t invent these things below, read more carefully. He merely used certain ingredients to make modified versions of them. Stop trying to overinflate the value of a historical person just because he is black.

If you believed George Washington Carver invented peanuts or peanut butter that’s your own fault. Reading this makes me realize people don’t understand their past and how the US education system is all in SHAMBLES! George Washington Carver did way more than just create peanut butter this guy was a trendsetter for most investors in the 20 century. He’s very was very important figure of our past time. You would clearly know that if you read a history book or just expand your brain outside a TV screen. Peanuts was just half the things he studied as a scientist.

His contribution to American society still speaks, decades since his death. All we can do about it is post ungreatful “comments” that add nothing to humanity. South Africa treats her leaders with greatfulness because we’ve seen thr worst of aparheid. America please appreciate your owm!

You will never understand the future until you embrace the past. GWC was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. Albert Einstein has mentioned and had documentation stating that GWC was crucial to America’s understanding of other products such as Peanuts and Soy. Who care about peanut butter? GWC legacy was much bigger than that, he was a innovator far a head of his time. Its not about inventing stuff what’s more important is being a great innovator and that’s exactly what he was.

Look, all scientific invention is built on the shoulders of those who came earlier. Sure, the Incas had something that might have been called peanut butter today, but using the same logic the Egyptians had a light source that one might call a light bulb as well. Just because the bulb does not use a carbon filament, or specifically a thin piece of paper whose composition is carbon, does not make the bulb a non-illuminating device. Yet, everyone wants to credit Thomas Edison with the invention of the light bulb when the truth is there were many men before Edison that had developed a bulb that would glow to some extent. Edison made a better light bulb. And Louis Latimer made a light bulb better than Edison, one that could actually be commercialized. So, all scientific achievements are a continuum and to debate who came first is futile. At the end the only thing that matters is does it work and is it practical. But as far as Carver is concern, in terms of a ‘practical invention” timetable, Carver actually is known(you do the research) to have developed and taught the use of a peanut butter spread to farmers in the south in 1880. G. Carver never filed patent on food products because it was is personal belief that “God blessed him with these inventions so how could I then sell them for profits”. This aspect of G. Carver attitude on food inventions is well known and documented throughout numerous publications. Also, Thomas Edison’s version of the light bulb was never commercialized. It was Louis Latimer’s version of the light bulb that companies copied. Now, even today these old light bulb devices are being replaced with so-called modern lighting devices. So, stop this foolish and futile arguments. Nothing stays the same forever. Some of you guys give people the impression that you have hidden racial agendas.

No it does matter. Its the whites that effectively suppressed black freedom since the time we came here. Remember White America had plenty of practice destroying people that don’t look like them( American Indian, Haiti, Middle East- to the countless others whites have destroyed .After having all these years to “Catch Up”. They do it well. You know hurting people that don’t look like them.

What we suppose to give you a pass because its 2014. Do all blacks a favor.

Black ,white, olive, who cares we all bleed red were all Gods creation.I belive we all have screw ups within our “race” not one race or person is perfict and all this white black crap just shows a persons stupidity.Grow up people.

GWC did not create Peanut Butter but he did invent better ways to make it so the oil would not seperate from the creamed peanut. Scroll back up and read the text. He came up with ways to make things that existed cheaper for the farmers and normal people alike to make at home like dyes and food items. This was during the time of The Great Depression so everyone benefited from these inventions for free except for 3 which he patented. Some of these things like the soy oil in printers ink is still used today (which is more expensive then regular petroleum based printers ink). Please don’t try to downplay this man’s contribution to our society just because he did not invent peanut butter. Just acknowledge this man’s contributions during a time when they were needed.

i’m doing a report on this and that’s not true because every single fact i have written is about making over 160 things he invented with peanut butter and how do you know that they invented peanut butter when nobody was there to record it so stop saying stuff that’s not true.